It seems like (almost) everyone likes to be around pretty people and pretty things. And for the most part they expect to pay a premium for that and are ok with it. And I suspect the people who aren’t ok with it simply don’t participate.

So what’s the problem?

The Case For Letting Kids Design Their Own Play – Yesterday we went on a hike, but never made it to our intended destination. We came across a lean-to/tepee someone had built, and the kids wanted to play in it. An hour and a half later, they’d cycled through several characters each and moved countless logs and sticks to create a fire pit with seating to facilitate their story.

Yeah. I’m bragging.

But we also got to relax in the woods at 68 degrees and no humidity while they played. Everybody wins.

The libertarian side of me wants to use a selfie stick (which I don’t currently own) to take a picture of myself drinking a can of Falls City beer (which I don’t currently drink) I sneaked into SeaWorld.

Just because I can.

And because they won’t care.

The Influence of Fathers on Children – Some of the stuff here is correlation over causation, but it still rings true to me. Being a dad is the most important thing I do. I’m not always the person described in this post, but I sure as hell want to be.

I once heard a very inspiring pre-match speech in which the (very gifted) orator stated the team's objective of the day should be to not only wanted to defeat the enemy and spend the night in the arms of their women, but also cause their club to fold and burn their town to the ground. Additionally, we were encouraged to do everything possible to ensure that, even if the town was rebuilt, no one would ever dare consider starting a rugby club there again.

What’s the Hurry? Building a Digital Enterprise – "Again, the strategies of the past that focused on efficiency led many CEOs to view IT as a cost center to be run as efficiently as possible. The legacy leaves many organizations with huge technical debts—from poorly maintained legacy systems to outdated processes to staff with trailing-edge capabilities. Organizations are, in general, moving far too slowly to build their technical capabilities for the burgeoning digital era."

SoundCloud Opens Its Podcasting Features To Everyone – This is cool. I could see it being used for doing things like leaving really long voicemails for people. Why would you want to do that? Well, if you do it as a podcast, it’s like leaving a voicemail without having to call and take the risk that they’ll actually pick up the phone.

‘Millionaire Next Door’ author dies in crash – Sad to hear. As I was opened up my feed reader this morning and scrolling through the posts of all the blogs I followed, I actually thought, “Man…Thomas Stanley’s is one of the only blogs I read every single post from.”

Ditch The Five Year Plan – It is a mantra at our house–"If you'd told me five years ago, this is where I'd in the situation I'm in today, I'd have told you that you were insane." Life doesn't care about your plans.

There should be a 6th piece of advice here though–don't take career advice from a blog post.

App Calculates Where You Need To Go And Sends You A Bike Or A Tesla In Five Minutes – I got to go by and see Shift's place a couple of weeks ago, and they have a really cool model. One of the most innovative ideas they have is to include Shift memberships as part of ownership in high-rise condos–saving the builders a big chunk on dedicated parking spaces for each tenant, and eliminating the need of car ownership for residents. There would always be an appropriate vehicle available for use in your building's garage if you had to drive.